Once Good, Always Good? Testing Nudge’s Spillovers on Pro Environmental Behavior

It is a common assumption to believe that encouraging pro environmental behavior (PEB) in one domain would lead to increased PEB in other domains (best-case scenario) or just be restricted to the initial targeted domain (worst-case scenario). Evidence from a rapidly growing literature on moral licensing suggests that interventions targeting behavioral change could lead to an even worse scenario, with individuals starting to underperform in one domain, as a compensation for their good performance in other domains. We propose to study the dynamic of PEBs when individuals are exposed to a specific nudge (priming) via an original experiment designed to capture actual behavior. We found that priming could increase PEB, but does not thwart moral licensing. Primed individuals end up doing worse than non-primed individual under a moral licensing condition. A more comprehensive view of the mechanisms underlying behavioral change is essential to support sustainable policies.

Access to Environmental Cognitive Alternatives Predicts Pro-Environmental Activist Behavior

We expand on the plausible role of access to cognitive alternatives to the environmental status quo (i.e., the ability of people to imagine what a sustainable relationship with nature would look like) in motivating pro-environmental collective action. Using a representative sample of Canadians on age, gender, and ethnicity ( N = 1,029) we evaluate the associations between access to environmental cognitive alternatives, politicized environmental identity, and willingness to engage in pro-environmental activist behavior. Additionally, we move beyond self-reported behavior by giving participants the opportunity to write and sign a pro-environmental letter to the Canadian Minister of the Environment and Climate Change. Our results suggest that access to cognitive alternatives is associated with stronger politicized environmental identity, greater willingness to engage in pro-environmental activist behavior, and increased likelihood of writing and signing a pro-environmental letter. All methods and analyses follow our preregistration and all materials and data are openly available.

Place Attachment and Disaster Preparedness: Examining the Role of Place Scale and Preparedness Type

Research shows that place attachment is associated with disaster preparedness. In two studies we examined (1) participants’ place attachment at different spatial scales, (2) participants’ preparedness (intentions and behaviors), and (3) place attachment as a mediator of previously identified demographic predictors of preparedness. Our findings show that place attachment is associated with both preparedness intentions and behavior. When controlling for socio-demographic predictors, participants who reported stronger house and neighborhood attachment also reported stronger intentions to prepare (Study 1). In Study 2, house attachment was associated with mitigative preparedness behavior, whereas neighborhood attachment was associated with community preparedness behavior. House and neighborhood attachment mediated the relationship between home ownership, length of residence, and preparedness. These findings suggest that place attachment varies by spatial scale which matters for different types of disaster preparedness. House and neighborhood attachment should be considered as relevant predictors of mitigative and community preparedness in at-risk communities.

Environmental Conditions Associated With Youth Delinquency Events: A Temporal, Meteorological, and Contextual Perspective

Research on youth delinquency has been essential for gaining a deeper understanding of the etiology of delinquent behavior. Studies considering the environmental perspective have increased during the last decade, but relatively little attention has been paid to temporal patterns and weather conditions. The present study explores the seasonality of youth delinquency as well as the association between violent and non-violent youth offenses and temperature, rainfall, level of darkness, type of day, type of place, and companionship, using data gathered by the police along with data obtained from official weather agencies. To this end, we conducted ANOVA and contingency table analyses. Seasonality was found for non-violent crimes. Companionship, semi-public, and public places were all associated with a higher likelihood of non-violent crime, while darkness and public holidays raise the odds of violent crime to happen. No direct association was found between temperature and type of crime.

Climato-Economic Context of Regional Crime and Corruption Across the Russian Federation

Cross-national research claims that the crime-and-corruption gap between relatively poor and relatively rich countries is larger in more demanding climates that require more cash and capital to cope with the climate. However, this claim is premature because countries differ in many confounding ways including histories and politics. We, therefore, re-tested the climato-economic context of violent crime and corruption within Russia, a country with considerable regional differences in climate and income. Across the eighty-five administrative units of Russia, the crime-and-corruption gap between relatively poor and relatively rich regions is smaller in more demanding climates. Harsher climates are so strongly associated with higher crime levels that the potential influence of differences in wealth becomes negligible. Furthermore, harsher climates are so strongly associated with higher corruption rates in poorer regions but lower corruption rates in richer regions that the potential influence of the climatic demands as such becomes negligible.

Effects of Nature Values and Regulatory Fit of Message Framing on Message Evaluation and Actual Pro-Environmental Donations

Messages are often tailored to individual differences, as fit is believed to influence behavior. We examine the effects of regulatory fit (i.e., matching promotion/prevention message framing to people’s promotion/prevention orientation) and the priority that individuals attribute to nature values, on the evaluation of climate change messages and donations to pro-environmental charities. We measured participants’ ( n = 570) regulatory focus on ensuring positive outcomes (promotion) versus avoiding negative outcomes (prevention), and nature values. Participants evaluated a promotion- or prevention-framed text (highlighting ensuring the welfare of the environment or avoiding its destruction) and were then invited to donate part of their remuneration to pro-environmental or other charities. Participants who prioritized nature values evaluated the promotion-framed text more favorably the stronger their promotion focus was, but only endorsement of nature values predicted donations. This highlights the importance of measuring actual pro-environmental behavior, as positive message evaluations did not result in donations.

The Relationship Between City “Greenness” and Homicide in the US: Evidence Over a 30-Year Period

Residents in US cities are exposed to high levels of stress and violent crime. At the same time, a number of cities have put forward “greening” efforts which may promote nature’s calming effects and reduce stressful stimuli. Previous research has shown that greening may lower aggressive behaviors and violent crime. In this study we examined, for the first time, the longitudinal effects over a 30-year period of average city greenness on homicide rates across 290 major cities in the US, using multilevel linear growth curve modeling. Overall, homicide rates in US cities decreased over this time-period (52.1–33.5 per 100,000 population) while the average greenness increased slightly (0.41–0.43 NDVI). Change in average city greenness was negatively associated with homicide, controlling for a range of variables (β = −.30, p-value = .02). The results of this study suggest that efforts to increase urban greenness may have small but significant violence-reduction benefits.

Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic Nationwide Lockdown on Mental Health, Environmental Concern, and Prejudice Against Other Social Groups

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit humanity globally. Besides its obvious threats to our physical health and economic stability, one can only speculate about the pandemic’s and its countermeasures’ psychosocial impacts. Here, we took advantage of a sample of healthy male participants who had completed psychosocial measures on mental health, environmental concern, and prejudice against asylum-seekers just before and during the nationwide lockdown in Germany in spring 2020. A follow-up assessment of 140 participants during the lockdown provided a unique opportunity to track psychosocial changes in a prospective longitudinal study design. In comparison to before the lockdown (1) mental health worsened, (2) environmental concern increased, and (3) prejudice against asylum-seekers decreased. Our study demonstrates psychosocial “side effects” of the pandemic that bring both challenges and opportunities for our society with regard to the handling of psychological reactions to this pandemic and further global crises, including climate change and mass migration.

Policy and Environmental Predictors of Park Visits During the First Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Getting Out While Staying in

The COVID-19 pandemic may have altered visitation patterns to parks, with potential effects on human health. Little is known about park use early in the pandemic, how park availability influenced use, and whether park visits accelerated COVID-19 spread. Using weekly cell phone location data for 620 U.S. counties, we show park visits decreased by an average 26% between March 15 and May 9, 2020. Net of weekly trends, park visits were 2.2% lower when stay-at-home orders were in effect, yet increased by 8.4% with school closures and 4.4% with business closures. Park visits decreased less during the pandemic in counties where park availability was high. Levels of park visits were not associated with COVID-19 growth rate or incidence in the following weeks. Thus, parks served as recreation and leisure outlets when schools and businesses closed, especially where parks were more available, with no evidence of park use increasing COVID-19 spread.

Nature Connectedness and Nature Exposure Interactively Influence Social Dominance Orientation and Policy Support for Marginalized Groups during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Social dominance orientation (SDO) has been reported to predict attitudes and behavior toward the natural environment. This research investigated whether dispositional connectedness with and temporary exposure to nature would reversely alter SDO. Two studies reported consistent results: Nature connectedness predicted lower SDO, and exposure to nature (vs. urban) decreased SDO only among nature-connected people. Moreover, the effect of nature exposure was strongest when the environment registered high security features. Study 2 generalized the findings on SDO to people’s policy support for marginalized groups in the US during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings are discussed in the light of the transition from people-to-nature connections to interpersonal connections and the heterogeneity of nature’s effect. We conclude by discussing the importance of nature exposure, of which people have been deprived since the global lockdown, in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.